Peasecods in Lent

Peasecods in Lent
Peasecods in Lent
Take Figs, Raisons, and a few Dates, and beate them very fine, and season it with Cloves, Mace, Cinamon and Ginger, and for your paste seeth faire water and oyle in a dish uppon coales, put therein saffron and salt and a little flower, fashion them then like peasecods, and when ye will serve them, frye them in Oyle in a frying panne, but let the Oyle bee verie hotte, and the fire soft for burning of them, and when yee make them for fleshe dayes, take a fillet of veale and mince it fine, and put the yolkes of two or three rawe egges to it, and season it with pepper, salt, cloves, mace, honie, suger, cinamon, ginger, small raisons, or great minced, and for your paste butter, the yolke of an egge, and season them, and fry them in butter as yee did the other in oyle.
--Thomas Dawson, The Good Huswife's Jewell, 1596

Paste
1 cup flour
1/3 cup water
4 teaspoons oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
large pinch saffron

Soak saffron in water until water is yellow; strain. Mix all ingredients to make a stiff paste. Refrigerate half an hour.

Filling:
1/4 cup raisins
3 dried figs
5 dates
2 tablespoons orange juice
1/2 teaspoon each mace, cinnamon, ginger, cloves

Chop all fruits until quite fine. Add OJ and spice powder. Roll pastry out into a very thin. Cut circles about the size of a drinking glass. Fill each circle with a small amount of fruit mixture, brush edges with water, and seal. Fry peasecods in vegetable oil until golden. Drain on paper towels. Serve hot. Makes 20

Notes:
This recipe is based off one redacted by Kirrily Robert. The original recipe doesn’t mention orange juice, but I went along with it anyway. It thinned out the fruit paste a little.

I chopped all the fruit using a mezzaluna. I suppose it could be done in a food processor, since I was aiming for a paste.

The dough was really a pain to work with. A pasta maker would make life easier, or if I was doing these in quantity, I might try gyoza wrappers. I also has trouble cutting out the circles. I was using a Russian tea glass, which was the right diameter, but the rim doesn't taper, so it doesn’t cut well. I ended up using a small knife to cut around the glass. Next time I’m getting a biscuit cutter.

After forming the peasecods, I cover the plate with plastic wrap and let them sit until I was ready to fry. They could easily be made well ahead of time.

I fried them in canola oil. I tried flipping with a spatula, but tongs work better. Before I figured this out, some had gotten a little too cooked on one side.

These were quite well received. I bet a sprinkle of sugar or poudre douce on top before serving would be nice.

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